Development of Teachers' Empowerment Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study

Abstract

In this research, it is aimed to develop a measurement tool to determine teachers' perceptions about empowerment in a valid and reliable way. The research data were collected from two different teacher groups of 700 people (405 + 295 teachers) who worked in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. For the content and appearance validity of the scale, seven experts were consulted in the study. Exploratory (EFA) and Confirmatory (CFA) factor analyzes were performed for the construct validity of the scale. As a result of the EFA, a structure with 37 items and 4 factors explaining 69.53% of the total variance was revealed. These factors have been named as "trust", "status", "professional development" and "cooperation". Findings from CFA showed that the 37-item and four-factor structure related to teacher empowerment scale had adequate fit indices. The reliability of the measurements obtained from the teacher empowerment scale and dimensions were examined by Cronbach alpha and omega reliability method and it was determined that the calculated reliability coefficients were within the acceptable limits. Item-total correlations were examined to determine item discrimination. Findings from the item analysis showed that all of the items in the scale are distinctive. Based on these findings, it can be said that the Teacher Empowerment Scale is a measurement tool that produces valid and reliable measurements and can be used to determine teachers' perceptions about empowerment.